


Changes

by heydoeydoey



Series: Everything 'verse [15]
Category: Glee
Genre: Family, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-08
Updated: 2011-06-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22791379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heydoeydoey/pseuds/heydoeydoey
Summary: Puck doesn’t know how to hate anybody who can make his mom smile like that, but it doesn't stop him from trying.
Relationships: Kurt Hummel/Noah Puckerman
Series: Everything 'verse [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638469
Kudos: 20





	Changes

He spends Sunday afternoon with Kurt at Hummel Tires and Lube, while Kurt works on his Mustang and Puck mostly just hangs around to appreciate the view. He promised his mother he’d be home for dinner, so at five-thirty he kisses Kurt goodbye and drives back across town. There’s an SUV parked in front of the house—it isn’t tricked out or anything like Kurt’s Nav, but it looks pretty new. Kurt could probably tell him the make, model, and year in about ten seconds flat, and probably have the engine taken apart and reassembled in twenty minutes.

He figures the SUV probably belongs to one of Sarah’s friend’s parents, dropping her off after a play-date or something like that. Instead, when he walks into the house, he finds Sarah sitting on the kitchen counter, sipping a can of orange soda and just watching while somebody talks. Puck rounds the corner and comes face to face with a tall, dark-haired man. His mom is laughing at something and she looks five years younger, in faded jeans and a pink t-shirt.

As far as Puck knows, his mom hasn’t done too much dating over the years. She’s been on dates, sure, but he figures the guys were never that important, or he and Sarah would have been put through the awkward _brand new boyfriend, meet my kids with my abusive asshole ex-husband; kids, meet the man who may or may not end up to be just as much of an asshole as your father_ introductions. He guesses at least a couple of them must have gotten close to that point before showing their true colours, because Puck knows a broken heart when he sees one. He’s gotten pretty used to it being just the three of them; he figured the first boyfriend he’d have to intimidate would be one of Sarah’s and it’s why he’s so unprepared for this.

“Noah,” Mama smiles at him. “This is my…friend, Robbie.”

The hesitation speaks volumes. Robbie sticks out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Noah. Your mom’s told me a lot about you.”

Puck shakes the man’s hand reluctantly. “Yeah?” Puck frowns. “Like what?”

“ _Noah_ ,” his mom snaps, shooting him a glare.

“It’s all right, Bekah.” Robbie says, and Puck wants to hate him, but he doesn’t know how to hate anybody who can make his mom smile like that.

They sit down to dinner, and Puck is bizarrely reminded of the last time Danny Puckerman made an appearance, although the two nights stand out for their differences more than for their similarities. Instead of the Puckermans feeling anxious and nervous, it’s Robbie. He keeps fiddling with the cuffs on his shirt, like he maybe dressed up a little bit and isn’t used to it. Mama’s smiles are real, not forced and fake, and Puck watches his sister coming further and further out of her shell—by dessert she’s practically beaming, and when Robbie offers to bring his dog over next time, Sarah giggles in delight.

His mother’s boyfriend obviously wants them to like him and there’s a large part of Puck that could. Robbie seems like a cool enough guy. He has a decent taste in music, he asks Puck about Kurt casually and it’s obvious he doesn’t care about who Puck dates; all in all he seems like the exact opposite of Puck’s father.

And then Robbie finds out Puck is a baseball fan.

“You know, I have Reds season tickets.” He says, looking at Puck with an eager, hopeful expression on his face that reminds Puck of Finn. “Would you like to catch a game sometime?”

“Not a chance in hell.” Puck snaps, pushing his chair back from the table and striding out of the kitchen, ignoring his mother’s demands that he come back that instant.

He slams the front door behind him and climbs into his truck, peeling out of the driveway before he can even think about where he’s going or why he’s so angry. He’s halfway to Kurt’s before he calms down, and then he knows he can’t see his boyfriend like this. Kurt always calls him on his bullshit, and as much as Puck loves him for it, right now he doesn’t need somebody to tell him he’s behaving like a child. He _knows_ he was rude and irrational, he just doesn’t know why.

He pulls into the Waffle House parking lot mostly on autopilot. When he was hanging around with the football team, they would usually stop for waffles after a night of drinking or getting high or causing mayhem or some combination of the three. Tonight, though, the place is pretty much empty except for a couple truckers off the interstate. He orders two chocolate chip waffles, slathers them in butter, drowns them in maple syrup and starts to eat slowly, killing as much time as possible.

He doesn’t think anything of the bell above the door ringing.

“Ugh, Noah, do you know how unhealthy all of that is?” Kurt says, sliding into the booth next to Puck.

“Don’t care.” Puck says, although he slides his plate away. He’s starting to feel a little bit sick. “How’d you find me?”

“Educated guess. Your mom called looking for you. For the record, you came straight to my house and you’ll probably stay over tonight.”

“Yeah?” Puck asks.

“Yeah. But only if you tell me what’s going on.”

Puck sighs and slouches down in the booth.

“C’mon, Noah.” Kurt wheedles. “Talk to me.”

“My mom brought her boyfriend over for dinner.”

“I didn’t know she had one.”

“Neither did I.” Puck says darkly.

“You don’t like him.”

“It’s not that.” Puck could very easily like Robbie. He just doesn’t _want_ to. “He just…came out of nowhere. I walked through the door and there he was. I won’t get attached because he’s just going to leave again.”

“Honestly, Noah, for somebody with abandonment issues like yours, you took a big chance on me.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“You’d never leave without a reason, and I’m not going to give you one.”

Kurt blinks, like Puck surprised him with his answer.  
  
“Noah, I know how you feel. I introduced my dad and Carole and then I spent months wishing I hadn’t.”  
  
“Yeah, but you love your mom. I don’t give a fuck whether or not Robbie is trying to replace my dad.”  
  
“Carole never tried to replace my mom.” Kurt says slowly, like he wants to make sure Puck gets it. “It was just me and my dad for so long and then suddenly it was me and my dad and Carole and Finn and everything was changing and I couldn’t deal with it. So I get it.”

“So you’re not going to tell me I’m being a big baby and I just need to get over myself?”

“Not right now.” Kurt says, and leans in to kiss Puck’s jaw, before sliding his arm around Puck’s waist and pulling him closer. Puck tilts his head to rest it on Kurt’s shoulder.

“He invited me to a Reds game.”

“Are you going to go?”

“I told him not a chance in hell.”

“That was…impulsive of you.”

“D’you think I can play it off if I say I’m a hardcore Indians fan?”

Kurt laughs and drops a kiss on the top of Puck’s head. “You can try.”

“Can you take me home?”

“My home or your home?”

“Mine. I should talk to my mom, maybe apologise to Robbie if he’s still there.”

Kurt beams at him, and he doesn’t say anything, but Puck is pretty sure that smile says something along the lines of _I’m proud of you, Noah Puckerman_. And it’s one thing to love his boyfriend; it’s a whole other thing to make him proud.


End file.
